Insurance Analysis

Proper analysis is vital to ensure that you aren't paying too much for insurance and that you have the correct type of insurance for your needs.

The decision to buy insurance to protect against a certain risk is usually based on some determination that there aren't sufficient personal resources to cover the resulting financial loss. An insurance analysis is the only way to properly assess your financial situation to determine how much, if any, of the risk you are able to assume, and how much of it should be transferred to an insurance company. A loss of income due to a premature death, disability or critical illness will usually require a significant amount of capital in order to replace it.

An insurance analysis will quantify the capital need and then calculate the gap between personal resources and the potential need. Only in this way, can you be assured that you are purchasing the right amount of coverage. With so much at stake, you don't want to buy too little coverage, and, if you're like most people, you also don't want to buy more coverage than you need. The analysis will also help you pinpoint the right kind of insurance based on your budget and your preferences.

A complete insurance analysis will also ensure that you have your greatest risks covered. While most people own some form of life insurance for protection against the risk of dying too soon (17% chance between 25 and 65), relatively few are protected against the more certain risk of becoming disabled or critically ill. They face a 37% chance of becoming disabled and unable to work due to a prolonged illness or accident; and a 27% chance of being diagnosed with a critical illness such as cancer, stroke, heart attack etc. The loss of income due to a disability or critical illness is one of the leading causes of bankruptcies.

For seniors, there is a four in ten chance that they will require some form of nursing care which, at the current rate, will become prohibitively expensive or even unavailable for most people. An analysis will enable you to see exactly what kind of financial exposure you face if these risks are not covered.

The other certainty of life is change. Our financial and family situations will evolve; we will age; and, eventually our health will decline. And, as life unfolds, our needs and risks change. With some major life event occurring, on average, every three years for most people, it is essential to have a complete insurance analysis with the same frequency.